


A few secrets between friends.

by Adi



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-08
Updated: 2010-05-08
Packaged: 2017-10-09 09:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adi/pseuds/Adi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Psi Corps knows what you're doing, what you're trying to do. They want to make a deal."</p><p>"What kind of deal?"</p><p>"A truce,"</p>
            </blockquote>





	A few secrets between friends.

Lyta didn't notice Talia until she sat down beside her. This was surprising, because Lyta could sense every telepath in a fairly sizable radius. She tried not to let her surprise show and failed miserably.

"Thought I was dead?" Talia thankfully misinterpreted, "or did you just not expect another telepath even close to your strength?" Or not.

"What do you want?" Lyta said, and flinched when she realized what she had asked. Talia just smiled.

"I want to buy you a drink," she said, leaning closer to Lyta. "Can I do that?"

She hadn't changed much since they'd last met. Her hair was cut severely at her shoulders, a cut which didn't flatter her at all. It seemed designed to bring attention to her face, which had aged at least a decade in the few years since she had left Babylon 5. She wasn't wearing black, Lyta noticed, and found herself surprised at the fact she was expecting otherwise. She wasn't wearing a Psi Corps badge either, but that part didn't surprise Lyta.

She felt something push against her mind, a desire to let Talia buy her a drink, a desire that was coming from Talia.

Instinctively Lyta pulled away from Talia, shocked and a little insulted. Shocked that Talia could do something as complex as pushing a desire and insulted that she thought it would work on her.

Talia pulled back too, sighing. "I told them it wouldn't work," she said pouting, "but they insisted I try anyway."

"They" being Psi Corps, Lyta assumed.

"They want you to buy me a drink?" she asked, not because she was an idiot, but to move the conversation along.

"They wanted to see if I could push you." Talia shrugged. "I told them it wouldn't work."

"Why are you here... whatever your name is."

"Oh it's Talia. I'm the real Talia, not that puppet that worked on Babylon 5. She was far too nice; I don't understand how they bought it really." Talia motioned the bartender for a drink and looked at Lyta questioningly.

Lyta shook her head. She had been burned too many times not to know that everything had a price… she wouldn't accept anything from this woman until she knew what that price was.

"Suit yourself." Talia took a sip of her drink and winced. "I've only ever found good whiskey off earth once. A small colony that actually had its own-"

"Why are you here?" Lyta cut her off, not in the mood for mindless chatter.

Talia quickly became serious. "Psi Corps knows what you're doing, what you're trying to do. They want to make a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"A truce," Lyta scoffed, turning away. "We can stop this before it gets worse, before more of us get hurt." Lyta thought she almost sounded sincere. "Psi Corps has the resources necessary to build a new colony, one just for telepaths, and you can lead it. Isn't that what Byron wanted?"

That wasn't fair, it wasn't fair because she had stopped doing this for Byron a long time ago, and nobody was supposed to know that.

"I don't believe you," was the easiest truthful answer.

"Psi Corps has always taken care of it's own," Talia said obviously believing her own words, making Lyta wonder if her claim to being the real Talia wasn't just another misguided belief… she hoped so.

"It sure took care of you." Without noticing she had sat back down on the chair next to the blonde.

"You were born into the Corps. You don't remember what it was like to lose the silence in your mind to strangers. To feel your parents fear of you, to feel their disgust at themselves for giving birth to such a monster. Yes Lyta, the Corps took care of me. It gave me a home." She took a few moments to calm down. "You're going to start a war, a war between telepaths. We want to give you a way out. That's all, no hidden agenda, no strings attached."

Lyta looked at Talia wide-eyed with disbelief. Then something clicked and she looked down and shook her head sadly. "Now I understand why they sent you. It wasn't to check the limits of my abilities. It wasn't even to try and seduce me. You actually believe what you're saying. They created you so loyal, so subservient to the Corps that you actually believe that they have no hidden agendas; that this offer doesn't come with enough strings to hang me with."

"I am the real Talia," the blonde defended. "I would know if-" Lyta cut her off, actually feeling sorry for this creature.

"No, you're not, and no, you wouldn't. They're that good." Lyta got up to leave again, turning her back on the other woman.

She'd only taken a few steps when she felt a hand on her shoulder, forcefully turning her around.

"I am Talia," she was so close Lyta could feel her breath as she spoke. "Look into my mind if you don't believe me."

The rage and desperation were so close to the surface Lyta almost believed this wasn't a trap, but this was PsiCorps and it was always a trap.

"No."

Talia let go of her shoulder, pulled back and smirked, vindicated, "Afraid that you're wrong?"

Lyta sighed, "No."

"Well then…" When Lyta didn't answer her smirk faded. "This isn't the Corps, this is just me, no tricks," and when Lyta looked like she was starting to give, "I have know."

That was why in the middle of a bar, on an alien world she would never again set foot on, Lyta took a step forward, held the woman's face in her hands, and walked into her mind.

Her mind was unlike anything she had ever encountered. It was bright and tasted yellow and had an echo of greatness and a hum of power she felt in her bones.

She looked deeper into Talia's mind, pushing past the surface thoughts, the recent memories, searching for a remnant of… something.

A scan this deep should hurt, she knew; both of them should be hurting as though dull scalpels were being thrust into their minds. But it didn't hurt, it barely felt like anything.

When she found it, what she was looking for, it seemed so obvious Lyta almost laughed. Even PsiCorps couldn't create an artificial personality, it appeared. The most they had managed was a psychotic break connected to a doctrine severely loyal to the corps; they had buried them so deep the change in personality was drastic. It wasn't another person, just controlled insanity.

Carefully she pulled out, savoring the connection for as long as it lasted.

"Well?" Talia was looking at her, ready to defend herself. Lyta took a deep breath, reorienting herself to the real world. After a moment she leaned forward, just enough that all she could see was Talia's eyes.

"You're Talia," she whispered and kissed her, just so she could remember what her lips tasted like, just for a memory. When she pulled back it felt like an end, the beginning of a nothing worse than death, "But you're their creation."

This time when she left no one tried to stop her.


End file.
